The Good German – Steven Soderbergh’s mystery, set in Berlin, July 1945, was shot in black-and-white with cameras, film, and techniques employed in the mid-20^th century, including a score reminiscent of the period. However, a movie made at that time would have been censored had it contained language such as the actors are given to speak. New Republic Army war-correspondent Jake Geismar (George Clooney) arrives to cover the Potsdam Peace Conference. His driver, Corporal Tully (Tobey Maguire), who lifts Jake’s wallet and uses his motorpool privileges to trade on the blackmarket, is trying to help his prostitute German girlfriend Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett) get papers to escape to London.

Military authorities for the Russians and the Americans want to find Lena’s husband Emil because of his connection with a German rocket scientist. Before the war Jake had an intimate relationship with Lena, who was both his stringer and mistress. When Tully negotiates a deal with the Russian colonel to turn over Lena’s supposedly deceased husband, he ends up dead in the river with 100,000 German marks, but as Jake notices the bills are American issue. The Russian colonel’s suggestion that Jake will find himself in more danger in the American sector of the city proves accurate. Lena confesses to Jake that she is a Jewess who used her husband’s SS privileges to avoid the fate of the rest of her family. But why do the American authorities have such a keen interest in her and a notebook in her possession with the name Dora on its cover? As the politicians barter territory for German scientists, Jake tries to figure out the good from the bad. Is the only good German a dead German?

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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